Students' take: Is engineering, business, or medicine cool?

We love coolness.

We pick the coolest handphones and the funkiest fashion; and for students in their final year of junior college – perhaps coolness is a factor when choosing a course and career.

But what’s cool as a course and career? Is it engineering, business or medicine or something else? Is “coolness” even a factor for students?

938Live’s radio show hosted by DJ Dave Martin at Anderson Junior College featured the topic “that probably factors into every student’s mind at one point or another – ‘what do I want to do with my life? How do I decide on a course of study?”’

And the responses from panelists and students, très interesting.

We’ve summarised the entire interview for this post. Scroll down to listen to the full interview.

Panelists:

1. Mr David Ang (DA), executive director from the Singapore Human Resources Institute
2. Ms Sung Peir Fen (PF), member of Creators of Tomorrow and project manager at ExxonMobil
3. Ms Huang Zhen Yee (ZY), teacher from Anderson Junior College
4. Mr Benjamin Wong (BW), vice-president of AJC’s student council

Engineering, Finance, Business or Medicine, which is coolest to you? Does “coolness” factor into how people choose and decide upon their course of study?

DA: It depends on how you define “coolest”. Some say it is fashionable, some for the money, or some define it as doing something totally out-of-this-world…we invested ourselves in education, we need to do something for ourselves…Today, students have the opportunity to take contrasting subjects and that opens up a whole lot of considerations when you consider any job.

PF: Engineering is the coolest because I am exposed to different experiences. I get to work on reactors, travel and interact with people of all nationalities and positions. Engineering was my first choice because I like to solve problems. I’ve talked to Benjamin (BW) and found that students these days are very opinionated and being “cool” is one of the factors when deciding on a vocation of study.

ZY: As for coolest, I guess they [students] don’t really look at the prestige or even the income that much. It’s based on interest and passion because today’s generation is very different from ours or our parents’.

BW: What is “cool” in Singapore may not be so in the Middle East, Europe or other countries. I think in today’s generation of young people, I think we look at our dreams more. But at the same time, we have many people around us who give us advice, such as our parents.

Bridge from straws: bridging civil engineering and architecture (from Jerome Saad’s post)

 

Are jobs in engineering, business, finance and medicine in demand amongst students? Is there a demand for certain types?

DA: Well, in today’s situation, there are many types of job opportunities out there. We see the integrated resorts coming up… Singapore is evolving into a cultural and media hub, and there are a lot of opportunities there as well…there are a lot of human factors to consider while studying. Take an engineer for example. They are very good in their technical competencies, but what I would like to see is that engineering students should also have more of the human, social and EQ part of it.

BW: I think these courses are still in demand because according to statistics, these jobs can guarantee stable and high incomes. However, there are also other industries that are gaining popularity and the focus is no longer solely on technical aspects of the job. Students nowadays have an opinion and will question, analyse and think. Ten years ago, engineering was a very technical subject.

Nowadays, as what Peir Fen has mentioned, engineering is no longer about going there and examining. It’s about meeting people, creating new ideas and inventing new things. So I think people are now more interested in getting into engineering because even if they do not like technical aspects, they can express themselves with engineering.

Engineering remains one of the biggest faculties in both NTU and NUS. There’s always this perception that it is safe to join it because your options will be open after that. Is this the case?

PF: Speaking of a safe job, I’ll like to share with you that 20% to 30% of my daily work uses my technical knowledge. The remaining time relies on my interpersonal skills, negotiation skills, problem-solving skills and innovation. There is creativity and all the [additional EQ elements that DA mentioned]. That is more important in my job than pure technical knowledge. I think students nowadays are very focused on facts. At the end of the day, they count but a lot of other factors count too. I may move on to logistics, human resource, or even marketing and sales!

DA: We should not have the impression that a course of study is of no value –- it has. What is important is acquiring these systematic and analytical foundations of your thinking processes as they enable wider applications of other disciplines in your career…it is important for us to look into our competencies in four broad areas, one of which is the technical knowledge that is acquired in engineering.

Even if you are an artist, there are also some technicalities involved. An artist today has to know mathematics, geometry and material science. When you work with mediums, you need to understand how materials evolve, how materials are applied, how colours and light interact, and all these come from Physics and Chemistry.

So don’t forget about that.

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